Spokane, Wash., is under military lockdown, evacuated and quarantined for reasons kept mysterious. Dean Walker sneaks into the city, determined to document the phenomena in what he hopes will be stunning photographs that will earn him fame while revealing the truth to the outside world. Instead, he immediately lands in trouble and finds shelter with a small group of holdouts struggling to regain their normal lives—not easy to do as the city crumbles around them, people disappear in an instant, impossible creatures roam the streets, time goes freaky, and bodies fuse with solid objects. Gropp’s promising debut is taut SF-tinged horror told primarily in vivid descriptions of Dean’s photos. Lots of theories are tossed around about the source of the problem, but there are no concrete answers, and there’s little examination of the anomalies themselves; readers will have to be content with well-drawn psychological portraits of realistically flawed people trapped in a rapidly degenerating terrifying mess. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel & Goderich Literary. (Oct.)